When All Is Said And Done
by Cyan Azzura Ri
Summary: The Priestesses have come and gone.. the four gods summoned, the four countries safe. But, has the book really come to an end? There is one more legend, that has been long forgotten. A legend of the fifth god.
1. Time is Changing

**A/N: **Hello! Yeah, I should be writing on Empty Pages since I haven't in forever, but this one's been stuck in my head for months now, so I thought I'd write it. I hope you readers like it, but if you don't.. That's okay. As long as you don't flame me!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own much. Just, maybe the basic storyline and some of the characters. ((nodnod))

* * *

**Chapter 1: Time is Changing**

The Universe of the Four Gods; an enchanted book with a whole other world inside of it. Inside that world, there were four countries - Hokkan, Sairo, Kutou, and Konan. Each of the countries had their own beast god - Genbu, the black tortoise of the north; Byakko, the white tiger of the west; Seiryu, the azure dragon of the east; and Suzaku, the red bird of the south. Each of these beast gods had seven seishi, and one Priestess.

Once each of the Priestesses had finally summoned their god, the book world would disappear and not be heard of again. So, one by one, the Priestesses came and went, saving the countries from what threatened them, and eventually the book disappeared, never to return. Those remaining that knew about the book, continued with their lives, wondering occasionally if they would ever hear of it again. Little did they know, that, seventeen years after the book vanished 'for good', it would show up in their lives for one final time. There was an additional beast god, that was long disregarded; Kouryuu, the golden dragon of the center.

Along with the god of the center, came another legend, that was known to a select few. However, the legend is just as old, maybe other than the others; most of the leaders of Hokkan, Sairo, Kutou, and Konan perceived it as insubstantial, and irrelevant, as it was not about their own beast god, and thus, it was stricken from the records, and eventually almost everyone forgot. Taiitsukun, Nyan-Nyan, and few others still remember it.

The legend tells about a terrible time. All four countries will suffer from an unknown evil, and all will blame it on whoever their thoughts may rest upon; whether it be one of the other countries, or all of them. However, before any of the countries are able to start a war, all four Priestesses will appear, along with another. They will have to find all 28 warriors, and then the warriors and four Priestesses will summon their own beast gods, and then they will lend their energies to the fifth Priestess, and she will summon the beast god of the sun before the world plummets into eternal darkness. But, when the legend comes true... will they be able to complete their task in time?

* * *

"Hikari--i!" A girl of approximately 17 years, wearing an outfit that clearly screamed 'punk', hollered as soon as she was off the bus and had spotted one of her good friends, sitting outside of a bookshop with her back up against the wall, bending over a bag and seeming to be going through it. The girl that had called to the other ran towards the other, her bright pink, boy-short hair bouncing with every step, and she could feel her black mini-purse bouncing against her hip as well. Upon reaching her friend, she stopped, and collapsed to her knees, trying to catch her breath. 

Sukunami Hikari pulled her head out of her bag long to look up at Nakahara Airi, and cocked an eyebrow in curiosity. She waited in silence a moment, wondering if her friend would catch her breath any time soon, so she could go back to _trying_ to find her wallet. She knew she'd stuck it in there, but it seemed to have vanished on her.

Finally catching her breath, Airi lifted her head and grinned at Hikari, reaching up to run a hand through her hair, making it stick out even worse than it already was. "Ogenki desu ka, Kari-chan? Whatcha doin' off work so early?" she inquired, shifting her legs around so that she was sitting pretzal-style, despite the short pink plaid skirt she was wearing. The dark-teal haired girl sighed in irritation, and looked back into her purse, glaring into it as if it had greatly offended her.

"I'm not doing well at all, Airi-chan. I got fired! And over nothing at _all,_ really," she sighed, and to get her mind off of what had happened earlier, she began to search through her bag once more. _Damn, where was that stupid wallet?_

"Maaan. I knew that rotten, stinkin', bakayarou boss of your's was going to overreact to some stupid something-or-other!" Airi hissed, and wrapped her arms around her friend in a tight hug of comfort, not really noticing that she was hindering her friend's search for the elusive money pouch. Hikari patted her friend on the shoulder awkwardly, her eyes searching the area a moment, before turning her head back to look at the other girl.

"Uuuh.. Arigatou, Airi-chan, but don't go getting any ideas about going and killing my ex-boss. Onegai shimasu?" Airi pulled back with a pout, and started to protest, but Hikari gave her a pout to challenge her own, so she just settled for pouting as cutely as she could manage at her friend.

Round one, pout war... _begin!_

Hikari brushed her long hair out from behind her ear, and pulled her large yellow sunglasses off, before lowering her head and pouting up at her friend with large eyes and a stuck out lower lip. The puppy-dog pout - what was Airi going to counter her with?

Airi rumpled her hair, and brought her legs up to rest her chin on her knees, wrapping her arms around them and leaning forward, her eyebrows tipped downwards at the sides, her eyes enlarging, and a whimper escaping from the back of her throat. The child that got in trouble pout - a definite challenge for the puppy-dog.

The competitors sat there, staring each other down, planning on keeping their pouts on until their faces fell off if they had to. They weren't going to let the other win. After at least five minutes, they were still giving each other their cutest pouts, when a girl with long, wavy blonde hair underneath a dark brown hat and obvious 'fashion sense', walked up beside the two, crossing her arms and looking down at them with a raised eyebrow.

_ They're having a pouting competition... on the sidewalk. Outside Hikari's work. Before she's supposed to be off. _Passed through Kajiwara Juria's head, and it was followed shortly by a sigh, and a sharp whack to the back of each other competitor's heads. Twins yelps of surprise sounded, before twin looks of irritation turned up to the blonde, and she just smiled innocently down at them.

Round one of the pout war results: **Hikari** - 0. **Airi** - 0. **Juria** - 1.

"Juria-chan!" Airi cried after she'd gotten over the irritation of losing the first round of the pout war, and a bright smile spread across her face, before she reached forward, grabbing their friend's hands and attempting to pull her down to the ground to sit next to them. She shook her head, and tried to pull her hands back from Airi, but the pink-haired girl was persistant, and continued to tug.

"Iie! Airi-chan, this is a new skirt, I'll just stand."

"Iiiie, you gotta sit! It'll be a little while until Risa-chan gets here, anyway!"

"So? I don't want to sit!"

"Onegaaaaai?"

"Iie!"

"Hai!"

"Iie!"

"HAI!"

Airi gave one last, hard tug on Juria's wrists, and the younger girl toppled forward with a startled cry, crashing against her assaulter, who in turn fell back against the innocent bystander, and they landed, sprawled out on the pavement, some of the contents of Hikari's purse scattered across the sidewalk. Hikari groaned in aggravation and pain, moving a hand up to grab the back of her head, where she'd hit it against the ground. She really hoped that she hadn't gotten a concussion, because she really didn't need one, considering she'd already gotten fired, and couldn't find her wallet; having a concussion would just be the cherry on top of the whipped cream of her crappy day.

The three of them continued to lay there for a few minutes, before Juria scrambled up off of the other two, kneeling on the concrete next to them, dusting off her miniskirt, then her short, sleeveless turtleneck, and finally the arm warmers that substituted for her shirt's missing sleeves, grumbling all the while about friends who, despite one's wishes, pulls them to the filthy ground anyway. Airi sat up after a moment, crawling off of Hikari, and peered at the blonde with a rather bright grin on her face.

"You know you still love me," she remarked, to which she just got a half-hearted grumble, and a chuckle from the girl still lying on her back. "Oh, here, let me help you up, 'Kari-chan!" she reached out a hand to Hikari, who took it gratefully, and used it to pull herself into an upright position.

"Arigatou, again," she said with a smile at the rather hyper girl, before turning back to her bag so that she could scoop it's contents back into it before anyone snatched them. She'd gotten almost everything back into her back, when she spotted the corner of a familiar small, black purse sticking out of her larger bag. Her eyes widened happily, and she snatched it up, clutching it happily. "Yeeeees, I thought I'd lost you!"

The other two girls watched her for a moment, before they looked to each other, and Juria raised an eyebrow as if to ask 'what the heck?', before Airi answered her look with a raised eyebrow of her own, as well as twisting her mouth to the side, as if to say 'it's Hikari, what do you _think_?' Juria glanced back at their dark haired friend, before snickering to herself, and asking, "Oh, so she was looking for her yen-purse?"

"Yeah, she was looking for it when I got here. Probably wanted to make sure she didn't lose it when she left work," Airi answered, as if Hikari weren't only about half a foot away from them. The rather money-hungry teenager turned around to glare darkly at her friends, continuing to clutch the pouch to her chest.

"I'm right here, you know."

"We know!" Both light-haired girls answered cheerfully, and swiftly ducked out of the way as a heavy bag was swung at both of their heads. The two both started laughing as soon as the bag's weight swung back to Hikari and made her fall to the side, nearly dropping the mini-purse back onto the sidewalk.

"You know.. You three are lucky that this sidewalk isn't very busy this time of the day." Yet another female voice sounded from a few feet over, and the three looked up and over to see a girl with long reddish-brown hair in a high side-ponytail, and a very freckled face walking towards them, holding the hand of an incredibly cute 7-year-old boy with dark hair and an equally freckled face. Airi grinned as she saw the last of their group, Ienari Risami, and she scrambled to her feet, quickly checking her black stockings for snags and runs, before looking back up at the oldest member of their group.

"Risa-chan, you're here! Yay! Now we can scavenge around Hikari's shop for good books! ... Oh, waaaait, I just realized... our plan has been foiled!" the pinkette mewled, reaching up and burying both of her hands in her short hair, before twisting on her heel to face the two that were still on the ground. "'Kari-chan, your boss is a big meanie-mean-pants. Now we can't go in, 'cause he'll be all pissy 'cause he fired you - for no reason, too! Aaaaagh, what'll we do nooooow?"

"Well, y'know, there's always the library. We don't need to _buy_ the books, after all," Juria suggested with a shrug, and looked between the teal-haired girl and the auburn haired girl, to see their opinions on the matter. Really, going to the library made more sense, because otherwise they would probably end up wandering around aimlessly, trying to find another bookstore, and would end up either at the library anyway, or back at the shop they shouldn't go in now.

"Hikari got fired?" Risami asked in surprise, her eyebrows shooting upwards. Hikari looked up at her, and nodded rather glumly, before looking back down into her purse for a moment, and then up at Juria.

"Okay, that sounds good, Juria-chan! I don't have enough money to buy anything anyway, since that.." she paused here and glanced back at Risami's little brother, who was watching her with large, curious blue eyes. She grinned at him and chuckled nervously, before slowly turning to look back at Juria, deciding not to say what she'd originally _planned_ on saying. "_Good-for-nothing_ boss of mine didn't give me my last paycheck."

Airi scowled angrily, and placed her hands on her hips, looking up at the door of the bookstore that they were just outside of. Oh, how she wished she could go in there and give him a piece of her mind, but she knew she couldn't. So, instead, she just blew a raspberry at the place, before turning to look back at her friends. "The library it is! Don't even need to see if **you** agree, Risa-chan. You're always at the library!" she giggled, turning fully to Risami, and knelt down so that she was eye-level with the black haired boy. "Hey, Emori-chan, want a piggy-back ride to the library?"

"Hai!" Emori chirped happily, and pulled his hand out of his older sister's, so he could run around to behind Airi and hop on her back, wrapping his arms tightly around her neck. "Let's go!" he exclaimed, and laughed brightly when the purple-eyed girl grabbed his legs and got to her feet, turning sharply just for his enjoyment. "Wai!"

Risami found it cute how much her younger brother liked her friends. Before she'd left, he had insisted on coming with them, and it hadn't taken her long to give in, because she knew that her friends didn't mind a bit when she brought him along. He was _"the most adorable kid I have ever seen"_ according to them. She smiled as she thought about this, watching as Hikari and Juria got to their feet and dusted themselves off. "Well, let's go, then."

With that, the five headed off towards the library.

* * *

Upon walking into the incredibly large library, and stopping in the foyer, Juria turned to face her companions. "I'm going to be looking in the non-fiction section; I still need to do that essay in History. Where will you guys be?" she asked, looking from one to the other, to the other. She thought that she already knew where they'd all be, but she just had to make sure. 

"I'm probably either going to be in the kids' section, or in the little snack alcove; Emori-chan's been complainin' about an empty stomach, and I'm just too nice to make him continue starving! Ja ne!" Airi chirped, before skipping off down the hall towards the snack alcove, humming the chocobo theme from the Final Fantasy games.

Juria watched her go with a nod, before turning back to the others, peering over her sunglasses at them, to actually see them as she waited for answers.

"I'm going to be in the young adult fiction, most likely. I might be at one of the computers... who knows." Hikari said with a shrug, waving at her friends, before walking around them and heading off towards the young adult fiction. Like with Airi, Juria watched her go, before turning to look back at Risami, with a smile.

Risa seemed to think for a moment, before shrugging slightly, "I'm likely to be with Airi-chan; she does have my baby brother, after all."

Juria laughed quietly and nodded her head, patting her friend lightly on the shoulder. "That's what I thought. Don't let their hyperactivity kill you, alright?" she advised, and Risami chuckled, nodding. They both knew that Emori was the most energetic of all Risa's siblings, they'd been best friends with Airi so long that they knew that when she was around kids, she was even more vivacious than she _usually_ was.

"I'll try to stay alive. No guarantees, Juri-chan," Risami replied quite simply, giving her friend a quick hug, before turning and heading off after Airi and her little brother. Juria turned in the opposite direction, and slipped her sunglasses off as she walked, dropping them carefully into her purse.

* * *

Airi plucked enough yen for a bag of chips from her mini-purse, and stuffed it into the machine, pressing the buttons that indicated which snack she wanted. Emori bounced on the balls of his feet as he waited for the machine to pushed the bag forward, then drop it into the slot, and as soon as it had, he pushed the flap up and reached in, snatching it from inside. "Yay, thank you Airi-san!" he said to her, before scampering off to the bench and sitting down on it, so he could munch happily away on the chips. 

Risami walked up at that point, and watched her brother sit down on the bench, before looking to her pink haired friend with a chuckle. "You're going to spoil my brother, I hope you know," she stated quite simply, placing her hands on her hips and giving her friend a faux-stern look.

Airi blinked at Risa, then smiled innocently, and linked her hands behind her back, rocking forward and backward on her feet. "Weeeeell, I don't have any younger siblings of my own... just my stupid, annoying big brother Itaru. And he doesn't spoil _me_... so one of us has to spoil _someone's_ younger sibling!" she explained, with a bright grin, hoping that her friend bought it.

Shaking her head at her friend's excuse for spoiling her brother, Risa walked over to her brother and sat down next to him, keeping her eyes on her friend. "Yeah, yeah. But between you, Hikari, Juria, my parents, Mitsuaki, Trisha, Uiko, Josie, and I, he's becoming the most spoiled child I know! Still not spoiled _rotten_, he's much too sweet-spirited for that..." she laughed, leaning over and engulfing her little brother in a hug, much to his annoyance.

"Onee-chan! Leggo!" Emori whimpered, finding it harder to grab chips from the bag when he was beginning hugged tightly by his second oldest sister. Risa just laughed at how cute he was, ruffled his hair, and then pulled back, snatching a chip as she sat up. "Hey, that was mine.."

"You have a whole bag, silly. One chip isn't going to matter," Airi chirped, as she trotted over, and sat down next to the black haired boy, also snatching a chip from his bag, and popping it into her mouth. As soon as she'd chewed it up and swallowed, she stated, "Two, however, is a big deal. So... I guess I'll have to give you a candy bar to make up for it." She sighed dramatically, and pulled a mini candy bar from her pocket, placing it in his eagerly awaiting hand. She grinned at him, and glanced up, to see Risami giving her a blank look. "... What?"

"He does need to have enough room to eat dinner tonight, y'know, Airi-chan," Risa scolded her, reaching across above her brother's head and whacking her friend on the shoulder. Airi was just about to retaliate, when a couple of library workers carrying a moderately large bin of old books between them walked by, bumping into one of the walls, and causing a few of the books to fall out the side. The older looking male snapped at the young female, who just cowered a bit and muttered a quick 'gomen nasai, Erizawa-san', before helping him carry the bin the rest of the way out of the alcove and towards the exit.

Airi and Risami watched after them for a few minutes, before the pink haired girl turned to look back at her friend, blinking in confusion. "I... guess they're getting rid of the old, worn books?" she ventured a guess, and Risa nodded in agreement, before looking down at the book that they'd dropped. "Hey, Airi-chan, wanna see what they accidently left here for us?" she suggested with a sly grin, before slipping to the floor, and grabbing the four that she could find, before crawling back into her seat, handing two of them to the younger girl.

Snatching the two books from Risa, Airi set one of them in her lap, and held the other one up so that she could read the cover. "The... Universe of the.. Four Gods? What a weird name." she snorted, and wiped away the dust on the cover, before flipping it open, scanning the first page. "_This is the story of a girl who made her dreams come true after she came to possess the seven stars of Suzaku, and many powers were bestowed upon her. The story itself is a spell. The one who reads it through will be given the powers and granted a wish like the girl in the story. Because the story begins and becomes real the moment the first page is turned_..." she read aloud, noticing that was all it said on the first page. She raised an eyebrow, glancing up at Risa, then back down at the book. "Neat. Wonder if I'll be granted a wish? That'd be awesome."

With that, she turned the first page, and... scowled. "Damn, shoulda known that nothing would happen. Mean book!" she blew a raspberry at the second page of the book, and then decided she'd read it despite the fact that she was mad at it for tricking her. She had gotten almost halfway down the first page, when she noticed something, and frowned. "Hey, Risa-chan. Isn't Miaka's Mom named Miaka? And... and her maiden name Yuuki?"

"Yeah. Why?" Risa looked up from the dusty old book that she'd grabbed, that she couldn't read the title but what she'd been reading had been very interesting. It seemed that it was about the Chinese legend about the Eight Immortals (or Ba Xian).

"The main girl in this book, the Universe of the Four Gods, is named Yuuki Miaka. And... it says that her best friend's name is... Hongo Yui. Isn't that Juria's Mom's name?" Airi inquired, looking up at her best friend with wide eyes. The half-American girl blinked at Airi, and nodded her head slowly, before reaching across her brother again, snatching the book from the other girl's grasp, and peering into it.

"Wow. That _is_ what it says. But, maybe it's a self-insertion story that Sukunami-san, or Kajiwara-san, or both wrote, or something?" she guessed, flipping through the pages to the back. For some reason, even though she was just skimming over the pages, she seemed to absorb it all, and by the time she reached the back, she knew the whole story. "... That's where it ends?" she stared in shock at the last sentence, turning the page, to see that there was nothing left but two empty pages.

Airi stared at Risami with a raised eyebrow, before reaching across her and snatching the book back. "You couldn't have read it _that_ fast, Risa-chan. Now, I know you're a bookworm and can read pretty fast, but not even you can read that fast." she stated, looking down at the book, and opening it to the page she'd been on. She decided to scan through it as well, and as she did, to her great shock, she suddenly just... knew the story. She turned to the last page, and also stared at the last sentence. "W-whoa..."

"See!? It did that to me, too! That is one freaky book... and is it just me, or in those last few chapters, did it mention Hikari's aunt Mayo going into the book, and Hikari being the _shinzaho?_" Risami asked, and Airi nodded vigorously, her eyes as wide as they could go. They were both beginning to think that this wasn't just some silly book that their friends' moms had written as a fantasy twist to how they'd found the loves of their life.

"We need to show this to Hikari and Juria as soon as **possible**!" Airi stressed, closing the book back up and sticking it under her arm, quickly reading the cover of the book on her lap, before setting it down on the seat beside her, and standing up, looking down at Risami and Emori, who was very confused at how his female companions were acting.

Risami nodded her head in agreement, and set the book she had been looking at beside her, quickly glancing at the title of the other one she held. But, upon reading it, she froze, her eyes going as wide as they possibly could without falling out. "A.. A.. Ai... Airi... um.." she stuttered, reaching out and grabbing one of the many belts around Airi's waist, pulling her over so she was standing next to her. "Look at the name of this book, then the last sentence in the other one."

Airi blinked, and leaned over, so that she could read the title of the book that Risami held. Her eyes widened slightly, and she took the book out from under her arm, and opened it to the last page, rereading the last sentence. "Holy..."

"I don't know about you, but I am not opening this book without seeing what Hikari and Juria think," Risami declared, standing up, and grabbing Emori's arm, forcing him to stand up with her. "Come on, you two, lets go find our other friends, as fast as possible." With that, she quickly picked her little brother up with one arm (he wasn't very heavy), and headed off, to go see if they could find Hikari and Juria.

Written upon the back page of the Universe of the Four Gods was written, _Their story was finished, but yet another story was destined to be written, and this time, it would be The Universe' Final Tale, _and the last five words matched the title of the book that Risami held perfectly.

* * *

_**"I'll take my chances, racing time  
Re-writing the book  
For all to see  
On my own, I can ride the winds of change  
To heal a broken time, a broken world.."**_

**First line from the song, 'Time is Changing' by Jenny Rom**


	2. Forever After

**A/N:** Haha.. ha.. I haven't updated this in a while. And then suddenly I wanted to! Odd, isn't it? Well, if anyone besides my cousin is still reading this, enjoy! Even if you didn't read it when it first came out but are reading it now, enjoy! And, review or not, I don't really care, I'm writing this for the fun of it.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Fushigi Yuugi or any of the stuff that belongs to other people.

_**"Life is a novel unwritten **_

_**An eternal fairy tale, both dark and pale**_

_**Yeah my little kitten**_

_**Farewell to love**_

_**'Cause I'm just not smitten."**_

**A section from the translation of Forever After, by Delerium**

**Chapter 2:** **Forever After**

_No.. no... no.._ Hikari thought to herself, as she scanned the shelves for a good read. Every once and a while she'd glance towards the nearby computer, cursing at seeing that it was still occupied, before going back to looking. She wanted to find something that just screamed 'READ ME!', but so far these titles just weren't interesting enough. Most of the ones that did look interesting, Risami'd already forced her to read. "Fine, then!" she surrendered, grabbing a completely random book off the shelf, and flopping to the floor.

She flipped it over and over in her hands a moment, before flipping it back so that the back cover faced up at her so that she could read what it was about. "_'Fire. Earth. Air. Water. These are the elements of Oran magic. These were the elements of the Queen's Quarter Knot, until the Fire Queen stole youth and power from her sisters and suppressed the magic of the land. But magic cannot be suppressed forever...'_ Aw, man! It's the second in a trilogy! And it actually sounds good, too.." she grumbled to herself, quickly reading the rest of the summary, and standing up, deciding to look for New Moon, the one that came before the one she was holding.

Her eyes raked over the names of the books, and upon spotting one named New Moon, she quickly snatched it and turned it over to read what it was about. She scowled, and sighed in aggravation. "Great, great! Another second book in a series that sounds awesome! Now I have to look for Twilight too..."

Just as she started looking again, the two books placed under her arm so that she wouldn't lose track of them, she suddenly heard a familiar voice hiss her name, then felt a hand on her shoulder, and she was suddenly facing Airi, who looked as if she'd seen a ghost. "Hikari, something super weird is going on. We have to go, ima." she whispered, sounding the most serious that Hikari could remember her ever being.

"Wakarimasen, Airi-chan.. what's going on?" she asked, with a shake of her head. She really didn't understand, and she wanted to know exactly what was happening before they left. They had just got there, after all, and she didn't want to leave for something that might not be that big of a deal.

"Just come on, onegai? Risa-chan and I need to show you something freaky." Airi tried again, and then grabbed her friend by the wrist, turning and dragging her towards the exit of the young adult section, planning on meeting Risami, Juria, and Emori in the non-fiction section, because she and Risa had split up to each go and find one of the other two. "Has your Mom ever told you about the Universe of the Four Gods?"

Hikari raised an eyebrow at her friend, beginning to wonder if she were delusional. It would certainly explain the weird mood she seemed to be in. "A... Universe? No, no, she's never mentioned a Universe of any kind. Airi-chan, did you get a bad candy bar?" she inquired, her voice indicating exactly what meant by that question.

"I'm not insane, Kari! You'll know it when you see the book. It's really freaky," Airi stated quite simply, and Hikari wondered if all that dye that Airi used to color her hair every month finally soaked through to her brain and was having adverse side-effects. But, she decided not to bring that up, and just went silent, deciding to let her friend drag her towards the non-fiction section.

Meanwhile, Risami had reached the blonde of the group, and was trying to convince her to go sit down in a nearby armchair. It wasn't working very well, however.

"Risami-chan, why do you want me to sit down over there, anyway? This isn't like you to be so pushy," Juria said with a frown, as she stepped away from Risami's pushing yet again, and crossed her arms, giving her friend a confused look.

With an aggravated sigh, Risami set Emori down, and told him to go sit down at the table that was surrounded by the chairs that she was desperately trying to convince the Kajiwara girl to sit down at. The little boy nodded a yes to his sister, and turned around, running over to go play at the table. Risa stood up straighter again, and turned to face Juria, holding the two books that she and Airi'd found close to her chest. "Juri-chan, do you need a reason to sit down when your best friend asks you to?"

"Hai."

"Why?"

"I like to know why I'm being pulled away from what I'm doing, especially when what I'm doing is _important_," Juria explained, and Risami blinked at her a moment, before nodding her head, deciding that it was pretty good excuse. She stood there a moment, trying to decide whether or not to give Juria a reason, before just sighing, and grabbing the other girl's arm and dragging her over to the sitting area. "Hey! Risa, I said I wanted a reason!"

"Yeah, I know. You'll get one after we're seated, m'kay?" Risami told her, and just as she reached the sitting area, pushing Juria into one of chairs, she noticed that Airi was headed their way, dragging a skeptical Hikari behind her. "Ah, looks like you're going to get an answer pretty quickly, Juri-chan."

"It was a chore, but I got dear Kari-chan to come with me! And, wouldn't you know it? She thinks I'm crazy," Airi chirped as she reached the others, somewhat amused by the looks that Hikari would give her whenever she looked back at her friend. Behind her, the dark teal haired girl nodded her head, looking around the pink haired one, first looking at Risami, then at Juria, and she immediately knew that Risa was crazy, too.

"You didn't tell her already, did you? Telling her before you show her the books is a bad idea! No wonder she thinks you're crazy," Risami chided the other girl with a sigh, before sitting down in one of the chairs, motioning at the ones around her, indicating for the two to find themselves a seat. Airi pouted at her as she reached them, and sat down in the seat next to her, while Hikari sat down in the seat next to Juria, who was also beginning to think that their friends had gone a little loony.

"I didn't really tell her, I just asked her if her Mom'd mentioned anything about the first book..." Airi muttered, looking up at Risami with large, innocent purple eyes, trying her hardest to get her friend to believe that she didn't mean to make Hikari think they were crazy. The light-brown haired girl just rolled her eyes, and turned to the table, setting the two books she was holding down on it.

"Okay, whatever Airi-chan," Risami sighed, making sure to dust the covers of the books off a bit, before looking up at the two across from her, with a pleasant smile that she tried her hardest to make say 'we're-not-crazy-just-go-along-with-it-okay?'. "Evidently, your Moms have never told you about the Universe of the Four Gods."

"Why do you two keep talking about this 'Universe' thing?! And what the hell do these books have to do with it?" Hikari asked in frustration, throwing her hands up into the air, before reaching forward and snatching the top book, and peering at the cover. She raised an eyebrow at the title, glancing up at the two a moment, before opening it up. "So this must be what you're talking about..." she muttered, grabbing the pages and proceeding to flip through it.

Airi and Risami expectantly watched as she did so, excitedly waiting for some sign of shock from her. They weren't disappointed either, because as soon as she'd finished flipping through the pages, she froze, and the book slipped from her fingers, to the floor. "See? See? We aren't crazy! Your Moms got sucked into a book, and became enemies, and.." Airi was cut off by Risa, who placed her hand over the pinkette's mouth. The purple eyed girl, pouted a bit under the hand, and turned a bit to glare at the older girl, confused as to why she was shushed.

"Airi, we still have to show Juri," Risa told the other girl, glancing at Hikari, who was still staring at her hands, as if the book were still there. Honestly, she couldn't blame her friend for being so.. well, shocked. She'd been pretty much that shocked at it, too. Glancing to Juria, she saw that the blonde was giving the book on the floor a skeptical look. "Go ahead and pick it up, Juria. You'll be a little more in the loop that way."

The blonde looked up to her, then back down to the book, and shrugged a little, bending down to grab it. She had nothing to loose, after all, except maybe her sanity. She did cling to her sanity dearly, but if all of her friends were going to go insane, she may as well too, right? Of course, if she stayed sane, she could always be the one to send them to a mental hospital so they could get better.. nah. It would be too lonely that way. With a mumbled _'here goes'_, she opened the book. After what seemed to be nearly a year, she snapped out of the daze the book had pulled her into, and tossed the book onto the table. "What the hell!"

Risa and Airi looked between each other, and then back to their blonde friend, watching her as she just sat there, leaning back, staring at the book she'd just thrown onto the table with a horrified face. They were all firmly planted in reality, but Juria was the most, so the two knew that she was probably the most shaken by the situation. But, after a moment, neither she nor Hikari moved, and so Airi pursed her lips in slight annoyance, reaching toward the Sukunami girl and poking her knee. "Kari-chan?"

"Airi.." the teal haired girl muttered, her eyes still locked on her hands. "Risa.. that is a freaky book." Her eyes flicked up from her hands, to the Universe of the Four gods, staring at it. The pink haired girl and the caramel haired girl both watched her, waiting for some sort of reaction other than that. After all, she just found out that her parents had lied to her about how they met. "I can't believe my family is so.. so... _cool!_ I mean, everyone tells me that my parents met through Uncle Keisuke, or something, I never really pay attention when they tell me, but they met in a book? Or, technically, another universe?! Wow!" Somehow.. that was not the reaction the two had been expecting.

As soon as Hikari had finished her last exclamation, Juria seemed to snap out of it, and her eyes darted up to her best friend of forever. "Kari-chan, don't you even understand?" she hissed, and the other two's gazes turned to her. That was more the reaction they had been expecting. "Our parents have lied to us! Mine, not exactly lied but haven't told the entire truth. But your's outright _lied_ to you!"

Hikari blinked in confusion, and placed her hands on her knees, before looking down at her feet. She hadn't even really thought about that.. "Right.. but..." she bit her lip, before looking up at the blonde, "Honestly, would we have believed them had they told us?"

"Maybe," the blonde said, crossing her arms, and leaning back against her chair, glowering at the book. "They could have taken that chance."

"Yes, they could have, but maybe, just _maybe_, they thought that the book would never show up again and they wouldn't have to _worry_ about us finding out, because it didn't really pertain to _our_ lives? All parents have secrets, you know," Hikari stated quite simply, giving her best friend a 'I'm right, and you know it' look. The younger girl gave a thoughtful look, before rolling her eyes.

"Yeah, all parents keep small secrets. I wouldn't think that keeping a whole _universe_ a secret would be counted as a good parents-keeping-something-from-child secret."

"Who knows!"

"**GUYS.**" Airi shouted, trying to get the two arguing best friends' attention. She managed to do so, as well as getting everyone _else_ in the library's attention, and getting a lot of annoyed responses. A light blush crossed her cheeks, and she smiled around apologetically, before turning back to the two, scowling at them both. "You're both right, alright? Your parents should have mentioned it, but they probably thought it was better for you if they didn't. You both saw what happened them in it, they probably didn't want you to have to go through that, too." she snapped at them, and they closed their mouths, looking down, chagrined. "Now that you both realize how silly you are being, lets look at the next book!"

The Kajiwara and Sukunami girls snapped their heads up, and stared at the Nakahara girl, who was grinning from ear to ear. "Are you crazy?" they asked in unison, and Airi's grin faded a little. She blinked at them, and tilted her head a bit to the side in confusion. "You just said yourself, they went through a whole bunch in the book! Why would _we_ want to?" Juria asked, raising an eyebrow at the older girl.

Risami nodded her head a bit, looking at The Universe' Final Tale. It was true, after 'reading' - couldn't exactly call it reading - what had happened to Yui and Miaka, why _would_ they want to submit themselves to that sort of torture? Plus, what sort of tale _was_ the final tale? Was it about one of the other of the four gods? That would mean only one of them could go in. Now her curiosity was beginning to bug her. She stared deeply at the second book, while the other three girls bickered. What could it hurt, to open the book and read the first page? It was bound to be like the first book. You would have to turn the first page to actually get pulled into the story. Glancing up at her friends, she made sure that they were busy debating whether or not to actually open the book, and then grabbed the second book quietly from the table.

Holding it in her lap, she stared down at the cover of the book, and wiped a hand absently over the cover. Did she really want to open it? Well, yes. She did. But did she want to take the chance of getting sucked in? Honestly, she did. She loved her life, and she wouldn't trade it for the world, but at the rate she was going, the most exciting thing that would happen in her life would be to get married. She didn't seem like the type, but she wanted adventure in her life. At least one adventure, besides moving to Japan from America when she was nine. But, did she want to risk her life just so she could have an adventure to remember?

Taking a deep breath, she decided that she would decide that after she'd already opened the book, because it was killing her. Grabbing the cover, she took a deep breath, then flipped it open. Nothing happened. Letting the breath out, she started to read the first page silently. _'This is the story of a girl who made her dreams come true after she came to possess the seven stars of Suzaku, the seven stars of Seiryuu, the seven stars of Byakko, and the seven stars of Genbu, and many powers were bestowed upon her.' _Staring blankly at the last of that sentence, she read it again, and raised an eyebrow. _Jeez. Four for the price of one?_ she thought to herself, just barely keeping from snorting as she continued to read. _'Along beside her there were four other girls, who aided her in her journey.' So, is she the Priestess of Everything, or something, and the other four are the Priestesses of the four gods? 'The story itself is a spell. The ones who read it through shall be granted the powers of the girls in the story. Because the story, once more, becomes real the moment the first page is turned..'_

Before Risami knew what was happening, she found herself turning the first page, and.. at first, nothing happened. But then, a green light started to fill up the pages. "Oh n-!" she exclaimed as she realized what she had done, and then, before she could close the book, the green light shot from the book and engulfed her. She tried to just drop the book, but she couldn't let go. Looking up quickly, the last thing she saw was the other three lunging to grab her.


	3. Pages Turning

**A/N: **Lalala.. another chapter, yay! I like this story, it's fun to write on. A lot better than Empty Pages, it seriously kinda sucked. And, two reviews, yay. One more than I was expecting! Since one was from my cousin. XD To chennaigirl: Thank you for reviewing! And, yeah.. it is a little confusing, I agree. All of my stuff is confusing. Heh.

But anyway! Everyone who is reading this, enjoy! This includes my cousin who I didn't include in the asking to enjoy last chapter. Lawl. So, yeah.. enjoy if possible. Sorry about the confusing quality.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own FY, or anything that anyone else owns. Like in the last chapter, the books Hikari was looking at.. I only own copies, not the rights to them.

"**Suddenly, everything is up to me**

**The pages turn, flashing full of memories**

**I can see all too clear**

**The time has come to face my fear****..****"**

**Second line from the song 'Advanced Wind', from Wild ARMs 3**

_

* * *

_

**Chapter Three: Pages Turning (since Advanced Wind just sounds silly)**

Yuuki Kiyori was incredibly bored. She was wandering around the library, looking for something for her father, Keisuke Yuuki. It was completely against her will, because she didn't much like the library. Sure, it had romance novels, which she loved, but she would rather watch romance than read it. She wasn't much of one for reading, really. With an annoyed sigh, she scanned the shelves, and grumbled in annoyance to herself when she didn't see the book her father requested. She only knew the title, though, because she hadn't paid attention to what he was saying. Until her mother told her to get up and go do as her father asked. So there she was, looking for a book that she had no idea what was about or even if it was actually a _magazine_ rather than a book.

"Crap, 'tou-san, why couldn't you have repeated yourself before I left?" she whined to herself, pulling a book out from the shelf, and glancing at the title. Nope, not the one she was looking for. Not even a candidate. With a deep sigh, she slipped it back onto the shelf, and glanced around. Maybe someone she knew was there? Maybe she could ditch the place with a friend and tell her father that they didn't have it that day. That could work. Unfortunately, she didn't see anyone she knew.

Except.. she squinted a bit, and peered towards a nearby sitting area, to see a familiar looking child. "Emori?" she mumbled, tilting her head a bit in confusion. Why would Emori be there by himself? Especially in the non-fiction section? Taking a few steps closer to the sitting area, she soon realized that it was, indeed, Emori, and he was holding a rather old looking book, with another old looking book sitting on the table in front of him. Glancing around the area, she didn't see Mitsuaki, Trisha, Risami, Uiko, or Josie - _or_ their parents. Who was the kid there with, then? He was only seven, of course he couldn't be there alone.

But, what if there had been an emergency and the person he was with had to leave without him? That would be bad. It really didn't look like he was with anyone. Biting her lip, the concerned older-sister side of her won over, and she walked over to him, bending over the seat next to him, looking at him. "Hey, Emori. Are you here all alone?" she asked, her eyebrows knitted together into a worried frown above her eyes.

The little boy jumped a bit, and jerked his head up, so he could look at her. She watched him blink, then look back down at the book, petting one of the pages, and then look back up at her, confusion on his cute face. "I was with Risa, Hikari-san, Airi-san, and Juria-san and they were looking at these books, talking about universes and things like that.. I wasn't really payin' attention, 'cause it was boring, but then Risa opened this book, and a _big_ green light came out! Hikari-san, Airi-san, and Juria-san tried to grab Risa, but then it was like the light pulled them in! Whoosh! Then they were gone!" he exclaimed, looking back down at the book he was holding, petting the pages again.

What _was_ he talking about? Must have been watching too much TV. She petted his head, before glancing around, and noticing that not one seemed to be paying attention to them. Even if she did believe the boy's story, that would have disproved it. If that had really happened, wouldn't someone have noticed? She would think so. "Wow, Emori. That's quite a story. So that means you're by yourself, now?" she asked, just deciding to go along with it.

He looked up to her again, and nodded his head. "Yeah, that's what I said. They're in this book, now." he told her simply, glancing back down at the book, and flipping back to the front page. Kiyori smiled a bit, and reached down, grabbing the book from him and closing it. "Hey!"

"C'mon, Emori. Let's get you home, alright? I'm sure your parents are concerned. We'll try to get Risami-san, Hikari-chan, Airi-san, and Juria-san out later." she reassured him as he started to protest, and then watched as he reluctantly nodded his agreement, and then stood up. "Good boy. I think I'll take the book home with me, okay?" He looked up to her, and pouted, but eventually nodded. With a smile, she guided him towards the door, glad that she'd found some way to get out of the chore of finding her father's book.

_

* * *

_

"Hey. You."

Hikari heard a voice talking to her, and she clenched her eyes more tightly shut, waving a hand absently. She was tired, she wanted to sleep.. let her sleep...

"Wake up. Where'd you come from?"

The voice continued to persist, and she mumbled, rolling over onto her side, her hand over her head. Didn't they understand, she needed her sleep, school completely sapped her of her energy..

"HEY!"

And that time the voice was accompanied by a shove. "AH!" Hikari exclaimed, rolling over away from the offender, and rolled onto her knee, her other leg stretched out with her foot on the floor, and a hand held out threateningly. She blinked a few times, trying to wake herself up enough to figure out what was going on, and finally, she saw the owner of the voice. It wasn't her mother, after all. In fact, it was a young woman about her own age, with moderately long dark brown hair, and bright blue eyes. The girl was wearing.. odd clothes. Rather old. And Chinese-looking. Blinking, the Sukunami girl let her gaze wander about her surroundings, not really taking the other girl as too much of a threat.

She was in what appeared to be.. an alleyway? That in itself was strange, she didn't remember going into an alleyway. She remembered.. the library. And looking for library books. Twilight and another New Moon, to be precise. Then how did she..? Suddenly, she remembered Airi showing up and talking crazy stuff about a universe and her parents and stuff. Then being pulled along to a table, and then.. a book flashing it's story through her head. It took place in Ancient China. Her eyes widened as she remembered the last thing that happened - she and Juria had been arguing with Airi about whether or not to open the book, when suddenly Risami opened the book and she was lit up in a green like… Genbu no Miko? Seemed like it. Then she, Juria, and Airi all tried to grab Risa before she got pulled in, and..

"Ho-ly crap!" she exclaimed, snapping her gaze back to the girl in front of her, and looking her over, her eyes slightly narrowed. If she was a Priestess, it was likely she was the Suzaku no Miko. Which meant that, if her story when like her mother's, she would be meeting Tamahome first. And the girl sure didn't look like any Tamahome that Hikari would have _ever_ pictured. Which meant that her story must not be like her mother's. This girl probably wasn't even a warrior! Though, she _was_ taller than herself, and seemed just about as strong.. "Who are you?"

"Excuse me?" the other girl asked, raising an eyebrow indignantly, and crossed her arms on her knee. She was kneeling, obviously having been so next to where Hikari had been laying. "I think the better question is _who_ are _you_? Or what. What is a good question, too." she said, glancing towards the sky, and then back down to the teal haired girl, who frowned in confusion. What? "Falling out of the sky like that.. and I don't mean you fell off a roof. You fell straight down."

Oh. Well, that was a good question. Looking directly up at the sky, she saw that there was really no way for anyone to be on the roofs of the places next to her, anyway. Far too tall, would have to be able to jump really high to get up there. Since there didn't seem to be any way to climb up there, that is. "Ah.. I'm Sukunami Hikari." she said, looking back down at the girl in front of her, who was still kneeling, her crossed arms still resting on one of her knees. "And I'm human. Really. That's it. Well.. possibly the new Suzaku no Miko. It depends."

The girl's eyebrows shot up at that, and soon, she was right in front of Hikari, an eye slightly narrowed. "Suzaku no Miko..? If you're from 'another world', how could you possibly know about the Priestess?" she inquired, and Hikari blinked, backing up slightly, falling onto her bottom.

"Uh, well.. that would be because I'm the daughter of Yuuki Miaka and Sukunami Taka.. or, well... probably better known as Tamahome here," she stated, scooting back a little ways from the girl. The girl seemed to just sit there for a moment, staring at her, before she backed up slightly, blinking slowly.

"Really," she stated, disbelief obvious in her voice.

"Really!" Hikari insisted, nodding her head, and glancing around nervously. This was definitely not what she would have expected, if she'd actually thought about going into the book after learning about it. She would have expected something more hospitable, like her mother's welcome. Tamahome saving her heroically.. okay, so, things were a little bit worse than that. So maybe her welcome was a little better than slave traders, but couldn't the girl at least be a little more trusting?

"Give me some proof, then," the girl requested, holding out a hand, palm up. Hikari blinked, and looked at her palm, then back up at her. She wanted evidence of her being from another world, or evidence of her being Miaka and Tamahome's daughter? She didn't really have any physical evidence of the latter, but she did of the first. Grabbing her purse, she looked at it, trying to decide what she would show the other girl. There were several things that made it plain that she wasn't from 'around there'. May as well go with the most obvious. With a slight nod to herself, she pulled out her cell phone, and held it in front of the other girl. The other girl just stared a moment, slowly raising a hand. Once her hand got high enough to touch the phone, she jerked it back, and gave Hikari a suspicious look.

"It's alright, it's just my cell phone. It… well, see," she reached forward, and flipped it open, showing the inside to the brunette, who had reeled back, not seeming to trust the thing in her hand one little bit. "Oh come on, it won't hurt you. See the numbers? You dial in a sequence of these numbers – see, you press the buttons, like this – and then press the green button. Then it calls the phone with that number, and you talk to the person who owns that phone. It's a.. communication device. But I don't think it gets any service here.." she muttered the last part to herself, turning the phone around, and typing in Juria's number, then holding the phone to her ear. After a moment, a message spoke up, telling her that she was out of range, and she could have laughed. _Yeah, I'd say I'm out of range. Ancient China.._

"Alright, I'll be the judge of whether you're from another world or not. That could just be a.. a magic box, or something. Let me see it," Hikari heard the other girl speak up again, and glanced up to her, to see her reaching for the phone in her hand. Blinking, she looked to her phone, before nodding, and handing it over to the other girl. She grabbed the phone gently, before holding it in front of her face, and flipping it open. "Whoa, it.." she trailed off, staring at the glowing screen, with a picture of Taka and Hikari as the background. "**Whoa!** That's you. And…"

"The original Tamahome, my father Taka," Hikari stated proudly, crossing her arms over her chest, and smirking at the girl sitting in front of her. Now, once she had the girl convinced, she could have her lead her to the palace, and she could somehow introduce herself to the emperor – Boushin? Or had it been too long for that? – and then set off on her journey to find her friends and the Suzaku Seishi! If she was in Konan, that is. What if she was in Kutou? Or Sairou, or Hokkan?

As she was losing herself in these thoughts, she didn't notice as the girl slowly rose to her feet, padding just as quietly over to a bag that she had left up against one of the walls. But she did notice when she suddenly heard the sound of footsteps moving rather hurriedly away from the alleyway. Hikari blinked, and looked at the empty ground in front of her. There wasn't any brunette, nor was there any cell phone. It only took Hikari a moment before realizing that the girl had run off with her cell phone, and she was immediately on her feet, running towards the opening of the alley.

"Hey! _HEY!" _she shouted as she ran out of the alley, glancing to the right, and then to the left, trying to spot the back of a woman with long brown hair and dressed in slightly more masculine – for that time – women's clothes. She didn't see her, but she did spot a woman who looked a little perturbed, as if she'd been run into by some rude teenager. "Oh! Ma'am! Excuse me, but have you seen a girl about my age, with long dark brown hair run past?"

"Did I see her? How could I not have seen her, she ran past, with no regard for those minding their own business," the woman huffed, brushing off her skirt, and glaring over her shoulder, before looking back to Hikari, giving her a slightly apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, I must seem a grouch, but I really am not. She went that way, if you're trying to find her." The woman motioned behind herself, and then bent down, grabbing a basket from the ground, beginning to pick different vegetables and fruits up and put them in the basket.

"It's okay, I understand," Hikari said, quickly bending down and scooping all the fruits and vegetables she could into the basket, before smiling at the woman once more. "Thank you very much, I hope I see you again." She said, leaping to her feet, and running off after the thief.

As she ran, she dodged past people, apologizing occasionally if she happened to bump into any, and stopping sometimes as well, to ask if anyone had seen the pretty brunette run past. Some said they had, and pointing down the way she was heading, and others were not at all helpful. So, she just continued to run down the street, wondering if the girl had superhuman speed or some sort – it sure was difficult to catch up with her. _But of course,_ Hikari reminded herself, _I've never been here. She's probably lived here her entire life._ It was definitely a disadvantage for the teal haired teen.

It was right about when she was going to ask a rather irritated looking old peddler, whose wares seemed to have been knocked to the ground, if it was the brunette who'd knocked the things down, when she spotted a familiar head of long brown hair. "Ha! I've got you now!" she muttered to herself, and started towards the other girl. As she did so, however, the girl suddenly hopped up on a large crate, then turned around, opening up Hikari's phone, and then holding it out for the crowd to see. Hikari skidded to a stop, and stared, slack-jaw at the girl. This was triggering something in her memory, from when the book send the past story into her head. Her father had done a similar thing with the gum that her mother had given him, by trying to sell it. "Oh, no.. oh wow. Are you…? No _way_! She can't be… that would be just too hilarious."

"Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen! May I please have your attention for just a moment? I would like to see if any of you would be interested in a strange, communication device from another world!" the girl shouted into the crowd, moving the phone slowly to one side, then the other, for everyone around to see it. Hikari was finding it incredibly difficult not to start laughing. "It glows, so you could use it to see in the dark! I'm not too sure what all else it does, but that's the fun of it, it is a mystery for the buyer to solve!"

"'Ey, you can sell it if you want, but don't be all too surprised if you get an angry customer coming and banging on your door at night demanding a refund because it stopped glowing. You see, that needs charged pretty regularly, so it will work, and if it's not charged, it dies. This world doesn't have the means to charge it, sorry to tell you," Hikari shouted up to the girl, moving to the front of the crowd with her arms crossed and a smirk on her face. As soon as she came into sight of the other girl, a look of annoyance crossed the other girl's face, before she glanced around the crowd, which was beginning to stop paying her any attention.

"Hey! Don't believe this girl, how would she know anything about it, anyway?" the girl said, with a slight grin, once again holding up the phone for the crowd to see. All she got in response was a few shouts of 'how do you know it's from another world?' 'if it's from another world, it had to come from somewhere, and she's wearing strange clothes, so..' and other things along the same lines.

Hikari couldn't help smirking even more at the girl who now looked very perturbed, as she glanced back down at the teal haired teen. And she couldn't help it, she had to annoy the brunette further, so she blew a raspberry at her. The brunette's eyes narrowed, then she closed the phone, and jumped off the crate, landing in front of Hikari, who couldn't help stumbling back a bit, startled. "Fine, you win. You can have your.. whatever-you-called-it back."

"Arigatou," she said, taking the phone as it was passed back to her, trying to think of how she would ask her next question. Whether or not the girl was the new Tamahome. Of course, it was very possible that she wasn't, after all, she hadn't fought anyone off or anything, she'd just stolen her phone to sell it. There was bound to be other people trying to make money in the Universe. So she decided she'd just try to figure that out later. "So, do you believe me now?"

"Yeah, I guess. You are dressed strangely and that thing is not like anything I've ever seen before," the girl said with a slight shrug, not really seeming to be very disturbed by the fact that it was a girl from another world. Which kind of disturbed Hikari, since, she knew that if there was someone from a more advanced world in _her_ world, she'd be rather, _'what the heck?!' _And disbelieving, despite the technology.

"Alright, uh.. cool. So… I'm Sukunami Hikari, though I already told you that. Since you know who I am, would you, maybe, I dunno, give me the courtesy of telling me your name?" Hikari asked, shrugging a bit as she slipped her phone back into her purse, glancing up at the other girl through her bangs. The other girl crossed her arms, and leaned back against the crate, half sitting on it and half just leaning.

"Fine. I'm Mai Tan Liu. Though, just call me Tanliu. Do I call you Hikari, or what?" the girl, Tanliu, introduced herself, shrugging a bit at her last question.

"Oh, uh.. yeah. Hikari, or whatever you want," Hikari affirmed with a slight smile, not really sure what they were supposed to do next. When the memories from the old book flashed through her mind, she saw that after that, Tamahome had left her mother, and then her Mom had searched to find him, eventually finding him, etc. But she didn't really want to bother with that, partly because she didn't really think that Tanliu was Tamahome. Sure, she seemed rather money-hungry, but that wasn't a specific trait for Tamahomes. Or was it? She had no idea, it wasn't as if she'd been studying this. "So, um.." she started, pressing the tips of her fingers together in front of her, as she glanced about the area.

Tanliu raised an eyebrow, then also glanced around, then back to Hikari. The teal haired girl had to wonder what she was thinking as she sighed, rolled her eyes, and pushed away from the crate. "So, um? I would think a girl from another world would be a little more articulate, but whatever. First, we have to figure out if you really are the Suzaku no Miko. I'm still not _completely_ convinced you're from another world, but I'll buy it for now. Okay, so.. the Suzaku no Miko shows up in time of peril." The brunette trailed off, taking a few steps to the right, a finger on her lower lip, seeming to be thinking. Hikari blinked, watching her. "Well, we've got that covered."

"Your country is having problems?" she inquired, and Tanliu looked to her, blinking once, before snorting a bit, and grabbing the Sukunami girl's arm. "Huh, what are you-" she started, but was cut off as the brunette started to drag her off somewhere. "Hey! Where are you taking me? Hey! Heeey!"

"_Having problems_ is a little bit of an understatement, Hikari," Tanliu stated, continuing to drag Hikari off somewhere. They passed by many different people, some who gave them confused looks, disgusted looks, though Hikari didn't really pay too much attention to them, except to apologize to any that they might bump into. "See all these people? They're rather well off. So am I."

"Well off? They look.." the teal haired girl trailed off, frowning slightly. She didn't think that they looked 'well off', or at least what she thought of when she thought of well off.

"They're healthy. They're buying things. Do things look pretty normal to you?" They came to a stop, and 'Kari nearly ran into Tanliu, who was pointing towards a stall nearby. She blinked a bit, and peered around the brunette, noticing a woman seeming to be bargaining with the owner of the stall. The owner seemed rather forlorn, as he said something to the woman, who seemed to sag a bit, and look to a child standing beside her, their hand holding on to her skirt. She smiled rather sadly to the child, before looking back to the stall owner, saying something else to him, and he just held up a single meat bun. The woman eagerly nodded her head, and took the bun, before handing the man the amount he asked for, and hurrying off to another stall.

Hikari frowned in confusion, and concern. What was the problem with giving her the meat bun? And why didn't he give the woman more? She obviously needed more, that child was at a growing age. She looked up to Tanliu, who was staring sadly after the woman and child, and the touched her shoulder. "Why wouldn't he give her more..?"

Solemnly, the brunette turned to look down at the teal haired teen, and sighed a bit. "Because, as I said, our country is in trouble. Somehow, the crops keep dying, the animals, everything. There's no clue as to what it could possibly be. So we have a major shortage on food, and there's nothing we can really do about it." She stated, glancing back to the stall where the man was now sorting the few bits of food he had left. Hikari also looked in that direction, her frown fully concern now. It was hard to look at, now that she knew. "You better be the Suzaku no Miko, or I don't know what we're going to do."

* * *

"I'm home!" Kiyori called out as she got to her home, glad to have returned Emori to his house. Evidently, he _had_ been with Risami and the others, but they must have abandoned him. But, being the caring person she was, she made up an excuse about how they wanted to go to a PG-13 movie and so, when they saw her, they asked her if she would mind taking him home, and she accepted since she was heading home anyway. Mr. and Mrs. Ienari, thankfully, accepted the story just fine, thinking that it sounded like the girls.

As she trudged in, she slipped off her shoes, and then glanced up, wondering where her parents were. They might've been towards the back of the apartment. It would make sense, since if they'd heard her, they would have replied with a 'welcome home', or a 'hey, Kiyori, did you get my book/magazine?' She still didn't know what it was. Maybe it was even a book on tape. Who knew besides her Dad? She shrugged slightly, swinging her bag from her back, and onto the coffee table. It was a lot heavier than it had been when she left, seeing as how she now had two rather thick books in her bag.

"Alright.." she muttered to herself, glancing down the hall towards the bedrooms and the other rooms her family could possibly be in, then glancing at the bathroom door, then towards the kitchen, and then back down to the bag on the table. "May as well see what the books are.." She moved around, and flopped onto the couch, tucking her legs up underneath herself. Leaning forward, she pulled it open, and then reached in grabbing the second book that Emori pointed out just before they left the library. Evidently, the other four had all grabbed this one first, then dropped it and 'acted funny'. Looking over the cover, she raised an eyebrow, running her hand over the cover. "It's so old.. and, what is this writing? How could they even read this?"

"Kiyoooori! What's that?" She suddenly heard a high-pitched, annoying voice piped up, and she sighed in aggravation, placing her arms over the book, looking up and glaring at her nine-year-old sister, Orika, who was standing just across the coffee table, with a bright, curious smile on her face, holding a stuff bear almost as big as she was.

"It's a book. I can't even read it, so naturally you can't, so go back to doing whatever you were doing before. Okay?" she told her sister, giving the little girl a rather tight smile. The brown haired girl just blinked at her, before moving around the table, and trying to peer at the book in Kiyori's arms. "Hey!" she exclaimed, as Orika trying to pry her arms away from the book. "Stop it!"

After a bit, Kiyori finally managed to get the book out of her little sister's reach; the little girl reached for it frantically. "Kiyoriiii! Stop it, I just wanna look!" Orika whined, before sniffling slightly, and pulling away from her older sister, tears welling up in her eyes. Kiyori rolled her eyes, and started to apologize, but before she could, the younger girl had turned and run off towards the back rooms. "'Tou-saaaan, Kiyori is being meeean!"

Kiyori started into the usual 'I am not, don't believe her' exclamation, when her father, Yuuki Keisuke, walked out of their study, looking rather aggravated. He must have been working on something. She wasn't completely sure what he would be doing, but it probably had to do with his hobby. Whatever it was, she honestly had no idea what he did in his spare time. But, back to how he looked. He looked like they'd either interrupted something important, or she had 'been mean' to Orika one time too many. "Kiyori-chan, what were you doing to your sister?"

_As I thought_, she thought in annoyance. Their Dad had taken the younger sister's side, as usual, and didn't bother to hear her explanation. Well, she could always try to explain anyway. Frowning, she pulled the book back down to her eye-level, and showed it to her father. "I was trying to figure out how to read this old book, and she just came up and tried to take it from me! I told her it wasn't interesting, I mean, I can't even read it, but she just wanted to.. 'tou-san?"

Keisuke was looking at the book in Kiyori's hands in horror. It was the most fearful look that she could recall ever seeing on her Dad's face. It looked as if either she or Orika was in mortal danger, and there was nothing he could do about it. She was about to ask him what the matter was, when he rushed forward, and grabbed it from her, turning his back towards her. "Hey! 'Tou-san? What the heck?" she exclaimed, getting to her feet, and then peering around her Dad, trying to look at the book in his hands. "Have you read it?"

He just continued to look down at the book in his hands, before flipping it open, and then flipping all the way to the back of the book. Why was he reading the end first? Maybe he did that, Kiyori didn't know how her Dad read books. When he read the end, he seemed to let out a slight sigh of relief, and then turned to her, handing the book over. "Sorry, Kiyori. Yes, I've read it before.. I just was, uh… I didn't really like it, though I couldn't remember the end." That was one of the lamest excuses Kiyori had ever heard, but she decided to let it pass, and nodded slightly, grabbing the book back from her Dad, before looking back to her bag.

"Have you read the sequel?" she inquired, looking back up to her Dad with a curious head-tilt. He blinked slowly, before turning to look at her, his eyes slightly wide.

"S.. sequel?" he asked, and she nodded, setting the book she was holding down next to her bag, reaching into the bag and searching through it for the first book Emori had handed her. Finally, her hand found the book, and pulled it out, before handing it to Keisuke, whose eyes had grown to an abnormally large size. "Ma.. Mayo! Get in here!" he called, looking over the cover of the book, grabbing the front cover, and then letting go of it, almost as if it was forbidden for him to open it.

"What is it?" Kiyori's mother, Mayo, asked as she walked out of their bedroom, where she was doing who-knows-what, whatever mothers do when they're alone in bedrooms. The red haired woman brushed a loose lock of hair behind her ear, as she walked up next to Keisuke, glancing at the book in his hands. Her eyebrows shot up, and then right back down into a frown. "Is that.."

"Yeah. It refers to you-know-what," he stated, motioning to the word Universe – the title was written in Japanese, so Kiyori could understand it – and then looking up to Mayo, who looked rather horrified. What was with her parents and these books? She frowned at both of them in confusion, before deciding to let them talk about that book, and so she grabbed the other book. Once it was in her hands, she moved around the coffee table, and sat down at the couch, opening it up.

As soon as it was open, millions of things flashed through her mind, and soon she knew the whole story, and the book was on the floor in front of her. She had seen visions of her aunt Miaka and sort-of-aunt Yui get sent into a book, and then her father following along, Miaka saving the entire book world, then her mother, longing after her uncle Taka and despising her own life, went into the book to fix her own life, though only making things worse. It was after that that the story ended, and it had her in a state of confusion. Emori had been telling the truth, if the images in her head were true. It hadn't been the delusions of a child who watched too much television. Her eyes slowly trailed up to the book in her father's hands, and then up to the faces of her parents, which were facing her with identical looks, their eyes slightly wide. "'Kaa-san.. 'tou-san… Hikari-chan, Juria-chan, Airi-chan, and Risami-chan are in that book."

Keisuke and Mayo both stared at their older daughter in horror for a moment, before looking down at the book in his hands, and then up to each other. "I thought it was over.." Mayo whispered, almost as if speaking it aloud would make it too real. Her husband just nodded slightly, before flipping it open, starting to read it aloud, after what was already familiar.

* * *

Risami was cold. Very, very cold. Colder than she could remember ever having been in her entire life, and she had to wonder if she was dreaming. Because, it was Summer, why would she be so cold? Unless she had a fever and was having chills, but that's not what it felt like. Actually, it rather felt like she was laying in a snow drift or something. Maybe if she remembered the last thing she'd been doing she would know why she was so cold.. she had been in the library, if she remembered right. Library, library..

It was then that she remembered the two books she and Airi had found, which lead to her remembering the memories that flashed from the book into her mind, and that led to her remembering the second book. Which she had opened, from curiosity. _When I opened the book, there had been a big green light! Oh, man, is that really what happened? Did I actually get sucked into the book..? _she thought to herself, her mind reeling. Why would she be in snow? That was right, there was that cold country. It was also the country of Genbu, the green tortoise. _Does that mean I'm the new Genbu no Miko?_ She thought, her eyes snapping open at the thought.

The first thing she saw was tree branches, and bright sunlight behind them. She narrowed her eyes slightly, and held up a hand in front of her eyes, to shield them from the bright light. "Sure is sunny for Hokkan.." she muttered, slowly raising into a sitting position, placing her other hand down on the ground. She was in snow, she could tell by the cold, wetness underneath her hand. "But just as cold as it I.. uh… the other book remembers it," she continued, glancing down at the snow beside her, and then up at the trees around her. They were surrounding her. A forest? It seemed to be, since she couldn't really see past the trees.

It was amazing to her. This just simply fascinating, and she felt a slight smile tug at her lips, as she pushed herself up onto her knees, then her feet. Sure, it was rather nerve wracking, but she figured she was probably a little bit in shock, from getting sent into a book and having been lying in a pile of snow. She was probably going to freak out later. Unless this was all a dream, in which case, she was going to enjoy it while she could.

"Alright, so.." she started, glancing around the area, before settling her gaze on the most clear patch of trees. "I'll go that way." She decided, and started in that direction, her arms wrapped around herself, trying to keep herself from shivering too badly. It was better to go somewhere, than to just sit around and wait for one of her seishi – if she was, indeed, the Genbu no Miko – to find her. She'd be dead meat if she did that. Though, since she couldn't really feel any part of her body anymore, she figured she was probably dead meat anyway, but she may as well try.


	4. A Lucky Encounter

**A/N: **I'm sorry it took so long for it to come out, but that's how my writing seems to work. And sorry about how much it sucks. I was in a writing mood when I started writing, but I couldn't seem to make it good. The first several paragraphs were written on my twentieth birthday, though! But, you know, I seem to be writing this mostly for myself and my cousin, so, you probably don't care how much it sucks or how long it took, huh? If you do care, though, feel free to review.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own any of the Fushigi Yuugi stuff. Though, I do own several of the characters. Basically all of the ones that aren't from the anime or OVAs, actually. Some of the basic ideas for some of the characters aren't credited to me, though. I also do not own the song that Risami starts singing. Eisley (the band) owns it.

_**"A lucky encounter like this**_

_**Probably won't happen again**_

_**Coincidence or destiny**_

_**It doesn't matter either way."**_

**Translated second line from Utada Hikaru's song B & C**

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 4:**** A Lucky Encounter**

It had been several hours since Risami had started walking. Or had it been minutes? Possibly days? No, she couldn't remember any darkening of the sky, but that didn't really say much. The forest was so dense; she could barely see four feet in front of her. She had already been numb when she started, but she was beginning to feel almost frost-bitten. This was not going according to her plan, at all, so far. She had hoped, when she started walking, that she would find someone, or somewhere, or some_thing_. So far, it was all a bunch of trees and snow. Snow and trees. Oh, and look, a _twig.._

Bringing her mind back to the urgency of her situation, she wiggled her fingers slightly. Tried to, at least. Tried was the keyword here – as her brain told her fingers to move, they did nothing. She stared hard at them, but they just sort of twitched. "Well, **that's** not good," she told herself, blinking, and trying again, continuing to walk as she tried. She finally did get them to wiggle, but she could barely feel it. Biting her lip, she looked up at the path in front of her. If she could call it a path, honestly, it was nothing but fresh snow. It must have snowed recently, unless this forest was _that_ deserted. But no respectable forest would be seen without hungry, wild animals. She blinked at that thought. The cold must have been getting to her head.

"Hellooo! Is anyone out there? I'm in need of assistance if you are. Actually, if you're not, I'm still in need of assistance, I'm rather.. well… not too well off at the moment, actually. I mean, I'm probably going to be fine, but would be a lot better if I were to get some help," she shouted, hoping that some random stranger may hear her. Of course, it was probably to no avail, but she could always hope, right?

Continuing to walk, it seemed to be getting darker out. She couldn't be too sure, but it sure seemed less cheerful. Not that that's saying too much, it had started out pretty cheerless when she had gotten there. But that was not the point; it was beginning to seem more late-evening than around noon. If she could look at the sky, she would be able to tell more about what time it was, but of course, all she could see when she looked up was treetops. _The treetops, the treetops.._ _when I was a young girl, trying to find my way above the treetops, the treetops, the treetops.. Ienari Risami, this is certainly not the time to be singing to yourself!_

Shaking her head violently, she reached up and smacked both of her cheeks at once, almost startled at how little it hurt. Well, it hurt a lot, but in that, 'that's so cold that it feels like millions of icy needles when I touch it' way. She winced a bit, mostly because of the lack of actual pain. "Get a hold on yourself, Risa. If you lose your mind, you will definitely freeze to death. Plus, you just got here, you can't die. What will the Genbu country do without you? Man, I can't remember the name.."

"Hokkan."

"Thank you," she muttered in reply, continuing to walk. "What would Hokka-wait! Who said that?" she exclaimed, stopping in her tracks, and spinning around quickly. There was no one, just a bunch of trees, snow, and her footprints. If there was no one there, who could have said that? Her eyes darted around the area, then up into the trees. She still couldn't see anyone, but that didn't mean much. After all, it seemed to be getting dark rather rapidly. Her eyes could be playing tricks on her, or whoever it was could be good at hiding. They had powers, didn't they?

"Where are you?" she called hesitantly, feeling a little less confident than she had been just a little bit before. After all, she was naturally shy, and she was beginning to feel less sure that there was actually someone there. Her eyes scanned over the area, and she stood there for what seemed like an hour or longer. She knew it was only fifteen minutes, at the most, but it felt like a long time. "Alright.. must have just been my imagination…" she mumbled, glancing around one more time, before turning slowly, beginning to head off towards.. wherever it was that she was going.

Risa was really beginning to feel like she was in trouble. Night had fallen, quite a while before, and there was still no sign of civilization. Her steps had begun to slow, and her eyelids were drooping. She knew she wasn't in a good situation, if she didn't find anyone soon, she would probably lose limbs to hypothermia. Or.. what was it? Was that it? She couldn't remember. She was too tired to remember.. maybe if she just laid down for a minute..

Her knees buckled beneath her, and she fell forward into a fresh patch of snow, twisting mid-air so that she landed on her back rather than her face. Closing her eyes, she sighed softly. This was not supposed to happen. According to the memories from the book, this was not supposed to happen until later chapters. But of course, this _wasn't_ Hikari's Mom's story. Or even Juria's Mom's. After all, the first Miko had died, hadn't she? From what she remembered of it, the Genbu no Miko had died because she wasn't strong enough to keep the beast god from devouring her.

Was she, herself, not strong enough to even get to the beast god to see whether Genbu devoured her or not? Pursing her lips in aggravation, Risami opened her eyes, and peered up at the sky. It actually was sky this time, and not tree tops. It was beautiful, too. Dark and starry. It made her wish that she could just lay there and stare at it for hours. But, wait! She needed to stay on topic here! She needed to get up! If she just laid there, she would die. It was a for sure thing, not a 'maybe'.

Taking a deep breath, she nodded determinedly to herself. But wait. Just as she was about to pull herself to her feet, a thought appeared and slapped her directly in the face. What if she _wasn't_ the Genbu no Miko? Now, wouldn't that be a great situation. She wouldn't even have a reason to make it out of there, the book did kill off the characters it didn't need in later chapters..

Tears sprung to her eyes. "No! No, don't think like that, you're not the kind of person to think like that!" she snapped at herself, beginning to feel like a drama queen. After all, it could just be a dream. But, whether it was or not, she didn't need to act like that. Sure, she may die, but there was no need to act like this. That was Airi's job, not her's. Momentarily, she wondered where Airi was. Juria. Hikari. Emori.. "_Emori!_" she gasped, sitting directly upwards, her eyes wide. They'd left him in the library, alone! What had she been thinking, opening the book without thinking of the consequences?! She **hadn't** been thinking, that's what!

Reaching up, she braced a hand against the trunk of a tree, and pushed against it, attempting to get herself to her feet. Who cared what this was, book or dream, she needed to get out of it and make sure that Emori was alright. Placing the other hand next to the first, she pushed again, trying to get herself onto her feet, grunting, attempting to get her legs to support her weight. "Come on, come on.." she mumbled, finally managing to get one leg to begin to push her to a walking position. "I shouldn't have fallen.. I shouldn't have given in, what was I thinking.. I need to think more, today, I'm just not… whoa.."

The world was spinning. The trees blurred together, and the trunk of the one she had herself braced on was coming closer. "Cra-" before she could finish, her head hit the tree, and then she slid to the ground again, as close to unconscious as one could be, without actually being out. Her eyelids flickered a moment, and she slid from sitting against the side of the tree, into the snow.. then the world went black.

* * *

Tap, scratch, scratch, scratch. Scratch. Scritch. Tap. Tap, tap.

Risami moaned lightly to herself, wiggling a little more down into the soft warmth that enveloped her, and moving her arms up to possibly pull the blankets over her head. She wanted to sleep a little longer, couldn't whoever was writing save it until later.. rolling over, she nuzzled her face into the pillow. Wait. _Pillow?_ She thought, her eyebrows turning down a tad bit in the middle, wondering if she was just dreaming. Or if she was dead, that was a good possibility, but did one sleep in Heaven?

Prying one eye open, she peered at the area in front of her to see that it, indeed, was a bed. A pillow, specifically. It was a light tan color, obviously not of the best quality, and a bit thin. Cheap. Blinking her eye blearily, she opened the other one, rolling back onto her back, her eyes settling on the ceiling. It looked like any other ceiling, perhaps a little old. Oh, but her head.. she groaned, as she had when she first awoke, and lifted her hand to rest on her forehead. "Oh, crap.. a fever…" she mumbled when she felt the heat radiating from her head.

"Ah, I see you're awake, miss," a deep, masculine voice came from her left, and the tapping and scratching of writing quieted. The voice had startled her, having come from seemingly nowhere, and so she found herself squeaking, then jerking in the opposite direction of the voice, her gaze frantically bouncing around the room, looking for the source. "Whoa, calm down! Calm down." The voice again, followed by a pair of hands gently touching her shoulders, attempting to make her lay back down fully.

"Calm down, calm down.." Risami repeated what the voice had told her quietly, and took in a few deep breaths, before directing her gaze to the owner of the hands that were on her shoulders. Her breath caught in her throat, and she couldn't help but let her jaw go somewhat slack. An image that the book had shown her before flashed back through her mind, and she breathed, "Hikitsu.."

The face she was looking up in was.. well, she could describe it as beautiful, and she kind of wanted to. After all, she had the right to call a guy beautiful if she had a fever. But, he had features that were very masculine in a beautiful way, and that was the best way she knew to describe it. Long eyelashes, almond shaped eyes, steel blue irises. Or.. iris. The other eye was covered by a patch, as she remembered Hikitsu's being. His hair was almost as long as her own, and an odd off-white, gray-blond color, that was strangely attractive. Nicely plump lips, that, looking at them, caused a blush to rise to her speckled cheeks.

The one gorgeous eye that she could see blinked, and he frowned, before parting the lips that had caused her to blush, starting to speak. "Um.." he uttered, before shaking his head slightly, and looking up to her forehead, reaching up and placing his wrist against it. "Ah. It's getting a little better.." Evidently, he had decided to change the subject. She blinked up at him, finding herself just staring at him, unable to peel her gaze away. Maybe that was what happened to her when she was in another world with a rather nasty fever, probably delusions, and who knew what else wrong with her. She lost all sense of what was polite and what wasn't. Staring certainly would be categorized as 'uncouth'.

Continuing to watch him as he pulled away from her, and stood from the bed, striding out of the room. At least, that was what it sounded like. He had gone out of her line of sight, at least, without sitting up. But, she'd learned that moving like that wasn't exactly the best of ideas, so she just laid there, and moved her gaze back up to the ceiling. Was this all just a quick delusion she made up, as she lay dying in the snow, to comfort herself in her last moments? _Oh, I hope not.._ she thought, groaning quietly, and moving an arm up, to cover her eyes.

It made sense, though. A lovely, warm bed; an incredibly handsome young man taking care of her.. and there hadn't been any sign of human life before she'd knocked herself out. A random Hikitsu-look-alike wandering having been wandering through the woods until he found her, and then taking her to what she assumed was either his place, or an inn, wasn't really that likely. Unless she was the Genbu no Miko, of course. "Just look at Yui, she was almost raped but then her warrior saved her. Then lied to her. I like to think Hikitsu is nicer than Nakago." She rambled aloud to herself, before sighing loudly, and pulling the blanket up over her head. "You're over thinking. It's probably just a dream. You were fine with the entire thing being a dream until you woke up here, why wouldn't **this** be a dream, too? I know that I've woken up in dreams before. Oh, now I'm switching between first and second person. She may as well use third person as well, let her seem as insane as humanly possible.."

"Excuse me.. miss," she heard the voice once again, and immediately clamped her mouth shut, slamming the blanket down away from her head, looking up at Mr. Gorgeous once again. This time he was addressing her, rather than himself, and so she listened intently. "I have some tea for you.. you're going to need to sit up to drink it, though." He told her, and she blinked, before nodding, maneuvering herself so she could push herself into a sitting position. She almost melted when he stuck an arm around her, helping her into the upright position, but managed to keep it together, until he'd gotten the pillow up behind her for her to lean back against.

He pulled the blanket up farther on her, so it was partially covering the half of her that was sitting up as well, and then he turned, taking the tray full of Chinese cups and saucers that had obviously seen better days, and setting it down on the bed beside Risami. She watched his every movement carefully, not really able to do much of anything else, since she was feeling rather weak and woozy. That's what came with a fever, she supposed. Did it really have to include that in her dream? Honestly. She could've done without it. Hikitsu-look-alike then took the tea cup with both hands, and brought it to her lips, letting her sip at it gently. He'd obviously let it cool for a little bit before bringing it to her, because she was able to just drink it, without burning her mouth.

However, the flavor was a whole other story, and when he'd pulled the cup back away from her lips, she gag-hissed, and made a face. "Uck, that.. what the heck was that? Tasted like.. like.. bitter mushrooms and pond scum with a dash of flowerbed, including the dirt." She spat, almost literally, reaching up and using her hand to wipe at her tongue. She was rather surprised at herself for how rude that sounded, because normally she would silently hate it and outwardly smile. That was the sort of person that Ienari Risami was. Evidently fevers, and believing the entire happenings were a dream, made her lose her quiet manners.

Mr. Gorgeous stared at her a moment, before laughing quietly, and set the cup back on the tray, before lifting a soup bowl, holding it in front of her. "Here. This should take away the flavor of the tea," he told her, and so she eagerly opened her mouth, allowing him to lift the bowl to her lips, drinking from it much like she had with the tea. She couldn't even begin to explain how happy being fed by this man she just met made her. And she didn't even know his name yet.

After a little bit, the bowl was empty, and the young man set it back on the tray, before looking up at the girl who hadn't really taken her eyes off of him since she first spotted him. "There. How are you feeling, now?"

It took her a moment to think about it, but she then smiled slightly, and replied, "Actually.. quite a bit better. Not all the way better, by a long shot, but like I could probably walk by myself now, at least."

"Good." It wasn't much of a reply, but she was satisfied, because his voice was just as perfect as the rest of him. Masculine. Very much so. He picked up the tray, and stood, walking back over to the desk – or what she would call a desk, at least – and setting it down on the surface of the desk-thing, before walking back over to her bed, sitting down next to her. "I'm Kong Ming-rui, by the way. Who are you?"

So if he _was_ Hikitsu, he wasn't saying so. But that was fine with her, if he wanted to play hard to get – in the Seishi sort of way, of course, she wasn't thinking about him romantically, nooo, of course not, she'd just met him – then she would just go along with it. Smiling slightly, she reached up and brushed a lock of hair out of her face. "I'm Ienari Risami. I'm not exactly from around here."

"I guessed that, from your clothes. Any of the natives would have been wearing much more appropriate attire. Not to mention, you had no supplies; there was no chance that you had planned for Hokkan weather," he explained to her, reaching down beside the bed as he did so, and she could hear light splashing. A wet rag for her head? Evidently, her guess was right, because he soon reached up, and dabbed at her forehead lightly, with a cold, wet cloth.

Closing her eyes lightly in comfort, she sighed, just letting him take care of her. "Ah.. I guess you're right. I wasn't.. thinking, really." She figured that telling him that she was from another world right away would freak him out, or make him leave her. She remembered from the flash of memories, that the first Genbu Priestess hadn't been exactly.. welcome.

"No, you weren't. You better be thankful I was following.. you." She could hear the wince in his voice, and her eyes snapped open, looking directly at him. What had he said? He'd been _following_ her?

"What?!" she exclaimed, and sat up straighter, glaring at him. "You were following me? How **long** were you following me, exactly?" she asked, rather dangerously. If he had been following her, that entire time, then why hadn't he showed himself and saved her beforehand? "Wait! You were the one that told me that the name of your country was Hokkan, weren't you? So you were at least following me that long! What were you thinking, leaving me to fend for myself like that?"

Ming-rui had evidently sat back when she'd straightened, and was leaning backwards, away from her, staring at her, his one visible eye wide in surprise. Why on earth would her reaction surprise him? He had no right to be startled. "I.. well, wanted to make sure you weren't a threat."

"A threat! A threat? To _what_? Do I look like any sort of threatening anything, to you? Pah!" she hissed, and before she could really realize what she was doing, her hand had whipped out and smacked Ming-rui across the face. As soon as it happened, she regretted it, and both of her hands snapped back up to her mouth, covering it in shock. "I'm sorry! Why did I do that? You did save me, after all.." she trailed off, looking down at the blanket covering her body.

That was when she noticed a real good reason for having slapped him.

"What.. am I wearing?" she said slowly, reaching down and pulling the blanket away from her body slightly, peering underneath, at her.. what she guessed must have been an ancient Chinese equivalent to a nightgown. Or something. But, that was not the point. The point was, she had been wearing something completely different when she had passed out. He had changed her clothes..

Risami couldn't see him, but she could hear the bed and the floor creak as he stood up. Probably figured that it would be safer for himself if he stood up and moved away from the bed. Her eyes narrowed into slits, and she let the blanket fall back down around her body, before gradually raising her rather vicious gaze up in his direction, to see him.. just carrying the bucket of water from beside the bed, over to a nearby window to dump it out. He wasn't even paying attention to her! How had she thought this guy was gorgeous? Well, he still was. He just was a pervert who didn't seem to care about what she was saying.

"You jerkface!" she cried, feeling her rather famous – to her friends and family, at least – temper flaring up. Not that it hadn't already been, but now it was just getting to the point where she couldn't really control it. Before she really knew what she was doing, she had jumped up out of the bed, and ran up behind him, jumping onto his back. Beyond that, she didn't really know what she was going to do, so she just started to whack him over the head with her fist.

"Hey – hey! Oi, what are you doing?! Ow! Itai! That hur- stop that!" That was the sort of reaction she was wanting, yes, indeed. A rather deranged cackle erupted from her throat, and she just locked her legs around his waist, continuing to use his head as a drum, even as he stumbled back away from the window. She could feel him pulling at her, attempting to get himself free from her. That just fueled the fire.

He continued stumbling about the room, reaching back to peel the strange girl off of his back, but she had firmly attached herself to him. It went on like that for several moments, before he got tired of trying to do it himself, and he moved back towards one of the walls, slamming Risami between himself and the wall, as gently as he could, with still managing to make her at least grunt. "Get – off! I was not the one that changed your clothes, you crazed.."

She had stopped listening at the first part, because just as he said that, the door to the bedroom had opened. Her blue gaze snapped up to the one now standing in the doorway, to see a pretty young girl of approximately.. twelve to fourteen, who looked much like Ming-rui, staring at them with wide eyes. In her arms was a pile of what the copper haired girl guessed were warm clothing, for when she got better.

"Why are you on my brother's back?" the young girl questioned, in a tone that was half sweet innocence, and half scolding.

"Brother..?"

"Yes. Risami, this is my younger sister, Kong Zhuo. Zhuo, this is Ienari Risami. Risa, she's the one that changed your clothes, and had been taking care of you. She was the reason I wanted to make sure that you weren't a threat – I can never be too careful for her," said Ming-rui, in a rather exasperated tone of voice, and Risami very nearly just let go of him right then. But that would lead to her falling down the wall and landing in a pile, and that wouldn't be comfortable. "She has been in one too many dangerous situations because of my lack of caution."

"Yeah, yeah, and because of you and your newfound caution, you nearly killed the new priestess," The young girl, Zhuo, scolded her brother, wandering over to a corner of the room, setting down the pile of clothes on what Risami would call an ottoman.

"We don't even know if she's the new priestess, Zhuo," Ming-rui scolded right back, and shifted slightly, before maneuvering his hands underneath Risami's bottom, lifting her just a little bit higher on his back, since her grip had been slipping. He then stood away from the wall, and walked back towards the bed.

_It's probably a good thing.._ the copper haired girl thought to herself, because as soon as her rush of anger had worn off, and she realized that she had attacked him for a stupid reason, her fever had caught up with her. A wave of dizziness crashed over her, and she groaned slightly, leaning against his back, resting her head against his shoulder, closing her eyes. Her entire being felt like it weighed a ton, and she absently wondered how he was managing to hold her up. She knew strength wasn't his power, if he was Hikitsu. That was Nuriko's power.. Hikitsu's was water. Wasn't it? Her mind was beginning to lose focus, and she grunted quietly to herself.

Vaguely, she could still register the siblings talking, but she could only catch tidbits. _"She seems to be tired.. let her sleep... tomorrow.. what if she is.." _It wasn't making much sense to her fever-clouded mind, so she decided that she wouldn't even try to make it make sense. "Arigatou.." she murmured, before feeling herself fall back into the comfort of sleep.

* * *

"Look, I tell you, I am the Byakko no Miko, dammit!" Airi screamed, for about the fiftieth time since she had found herself lying in the middle of a desert, with nothing much around but a few desert animals, and desert plants.

Why, oh why, had she gotten sent _there _of all places? She hated heat, and the sun sometimes made her feel sick. But she'd found herself face down in the sand, with some of the brown stuff caked on, from having been there lying there long enough to sweat, and then rolling around. Oh, it was an awful feeling. The first thing she had done when she finally awoke, was clamber to her feet, and start rubbing at herself to get the nasty stuff off. At least she wasn't as bad as Juria was; if it had been the girly-girl of their group, she'd have likely had a heart attack, since she'd been wearing one of her expensive outfits, and a new skirt.

After she'd gotten most of the encrusted sand off of herself, she'd ran a hand back through her spiky pink hair to make sure it was still spiky, and then squinted up into the sky. Pure blue. Not a single cloud. A shudder ran through her body, and she brought her gaze back down, scanning the horizon. Again, there was nothing but desert, a little more desert, some things one finds in a desert, and.. oh, look. A little bit more desert.

At first she'd started to panic slightly, not knowing why she was in a desert. Why? She wracked her brain as she stood there, roasting and panicking, trying to figure it out. But pretty soon, it had come to her, and she realized that they must have been sent into the book. The panic, for a moment, turned into excitement, but quickly shifted back into panic mode. If she was in Sairou – where **else** could she be? – then where were the others? Konan, Kutou, and Hokkan?

There had been a lot of pacing, as she tried to figure out exactly what she should do. Finally, she had just decided to start walking, and see if she could find anywhere to stay for the night. It was really the only thing that she _could_ do.

Hours passed as she walked and walked, and she'd been quite glad to have worn her pink lace-up sandals rather than her boots. It would be so much easier if she wasn't in tights, of course, not to mention cooler, but she liked the tights too much to just take them off and leave them somewhere. So she had just dealt with it, and kept going.

It was beginning to get dark out, by the time her legs finally gave out under her, and she fell into the sand beneath her, looking up into the sky, longing for a drink of water. If she made it out of this, she would never complain about summer ever, ever again. Never. Of course, since it was getting dark, that meant that it was going to be getting cold. Really cold. And she was not in the sort of outfit for cold – probably a good thing that she had been sent to Sairou instead of Hokkan, then.

She hadn't had to sit there worrying about cold for too long, before she felt hands grab her from behind, and then haul her up, throwing her into a cart. Or what she guessed was a cart, because at some point between the ground and the cart, one of the owners of the hands had slipped a blindfold over her eyes. She let out a shriek as she hit the wood of the cart, and immediately sat up, scrambling quickly in the direction that she had come from, planning to jump right back out. But she smacked into what felt like wooden bars.

And that's what lead her to her current situation, sitting in the wagon or cart or whatever one would call it, calling out to them about how she was the Byakko no Miko. She had no idea what kind of trouble she was in, but she knew that it wasn't good, whatever it was.


End file.
